


Well, I Guess That's Something

by angellwings



Series: Suddenly You [1]
Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Family, Friendship, Romance, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-25
Updated: 2015-01-25
Packaged: 2018-03-08 23:36:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3227741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angellwings/pseuds/angellwings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cassandra Cillian moves to a small town in Oklahoma where nothing is familiar and she's all alone. Jake Stone never left town and believes he'll be stuck there for the rest of his life. One night, they stumble across each other. And well, I guess that's something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Well, I Guess That's Something

**Author's Note:**

> A story for the following prompt sent to me by not-a-princess-but-a-queen on tumblr: How about some Jassandra and a cute meeting at a bar Au? 
> 
> Hope you're happy with the result!! Enjoy!  
> angellwings

 

Being new in town was not something Cassandra was good at. Especially with her…gift. Girls that hallucinate in the middle of conversations aren’t exactly hits at parties. But thankfully she wasn’t one of those synesthetes who senses were all linked to each other.

She was simply a Number Form synesthete. When she did math, she saw it in the air. She’d never had to work anything out on paper. She could flip through equations the way normal people flipped through pictures on their smartphones.

There was nothing wrong with her, health wise, but it made her seem…bizarre to those who knew nothing about her condition. Thus, friends were few and far between and she was never the most popular person at a party. Thus she didn’t go to parties. Thus she was as awkward as the day is long.

What was she doing? Three ‘thus’es? 

She’d moved to this town because a professor had reached out to her. It turns out, her old high school math teacher knew this professor that thought he might have some tips for her on how to manage her hallucinations. It would be nice to not space out in the middle of a class or a conversation. So, she’d transferred to this tiny university in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma to study with Professor Flynn Carsen. Her parents thought she was being ridiculous and couldn’t believe she gave up M.I.T. for this. But she was tired of being a freak. She’d been freaky math girl all through high school and somehow M.I.T. was no different. The best STEM minds in the country couldn’t see past her hallucinations. How was she going to have a career or a life or _anything_ until she got it under control? This was more important than M.I.T.

Besides, getting into M.I.T. was easy. She could do it again in a heartbeat and they would welcome her with open arms. She might be crazy, but she knew she was brilliant.

It was Friday night at the end of her first week in town and she was bored. She hadn’t met many people so far. Sure, there were the students in her classes, but they’d seen her hallucinate on day one (yes, she was just that lucky) and all seemed to steer clear of her ever since. There was Jenkins, her boss at the University Library, but she doubted a grumpy old man in a bow tie felt like hanging out with a 19 year old. Nor was she sure it was appropriate.

And Flynn Carsen, well, he was almost as bizarre as her. Plus, he was her Professor. That would just be weird. 

So, here she was, sitting in her apartment reading _Wednesday is Indigo Blue_ , a book Professor Carsen had given her to read before their next session, on a Friday night. Other girls her age were out with boys or out with their girlfriends. Other girls had girlfriends. Other girls had friends.

She groaned in self-loathing and slammed the book shut. Even with her memory she’d never be able to absorb what was in this book in her current mood. 

No, she was not going to be _that_ girl. The girl who whined about her situation but never ever did anything to change it. That would never be her. She changed out of her sweats, grabbed her purse, and set out on the town. It was a small southern town. There had to be _something_ she could do.

* * *

Jake glanced around the bar and sighed. He was bored. Why was he still here? Not here as in the bar, though he’d already flirted with majority of the girls here tonight and found none of them particularly interesting. Same barflies as always. But there was good beer and good music. He’d take what he could get. 

No, what he was really questioning was…

Why was he still in this town? One of his brothers could run the Rig. It didn’t have to be him. Except for the fact that his dad _wanted it_ to be him. The fear of disappointing him (even if his father was a drunk) is what had kept him in town after high school. He’d said it was temporary until he could hire someone with real qualifications, but seven years later…here he was. Nothing had changed.

He still secretly learned everything he could about other places and cultures and the world around him that he would most likely never get a chance to explore. He still had an IQ of 190 and let it go unused in favor of manual labor. He still hid it away from the world.

Just once, he’d like to have something interesting in his life. Something challenging.

“Stone,” the bartender said. “You ready for another, man?”

He glanced down at the now empty bottle he held in his hand and nodded. “Yeah, thanks.”

The bartender, an old classmate of his named Ashby, cracked open another bottle and set it in front of him. He nodded his head in the direction of the door and then smirked at Stone.

“Something new just walked through door, hoss, check it out.”

Jake turned his attention to the door and his eyebrows rose. Something new, indeed. No western shirt tied at the waist or daisy dukes. Not even a good pair of boots. Instead she wore a simple dress with bright colored tights, oxford flats, and a sweater with some sort of quirky print on it. Was that cardigan covered in…macaroons?

She bit her bottom lip nervously and glanced around the bar causing her bright red waves to slide across her shoulders gracefully. Her hands twisted in front of her as she hesitantly made her way to a barstool.

“What’ll ya have, darlin’?” Ashby asked with a grin.

“Um, a beer?” She asked cluelessly.

Ashby chuckled in amusement. “Bottle or tap?”

“Which one’s better?” she asked.

“It’s all about preference,” Jake said with a smirk. “Ashby, here, will tell you tap, but personally I disagree.”

“His palette isn’t as sophisticated as mine,” Ashby said with a chuckle. “This is what I do, man.”

She laughed and nodded. “I suppose I should take the word of the guy who has the responsibility then?”

“So, tap?” Ashby asked victoriously.

She nodded. “Tap.”

“Excellent choice, little lady.”

Jake shook his head and teased his friend. “You’re over complicating it for her man. Beer should be simple. If I wanted to drink something with ‘flavor notes’ I’d drink wine. I’m a simple man. Let me have a simple drink.”

She quirked a brow at him and spoke primly. “No one is simple. In my experience, everyone has something that complicates them. Why not have a drink that’s a little complicated too?”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Ashby said as he slid the glass mug down the bar. She missed the mug and it flew off the counter and crashed on the floor with a loud shattering noise.

Her eyes went wide and she squeaked. She actually squeaked. She closed her eyes and winced. “I was supposed to catch that, wasn’t I?”

Jake couldn’t help it. He laughed. He laughed loudly and finished it with a chuckle as he responded. “Yeah, sweetheart, you’re supposed to catch it.”

“Oops?” she said as she opened one eye and scrunched up her nose.

Oh God, this girl was adorable. What the hell was she doing _here_ , in a grimy small town bar in Oklahoma? No one came here _on purpose_.

“Did your car break down or something?” Jake asked her suddenly.

Her brow furrowed. “What?”

“I just can’t figure what a girl like you is doing in a place like this,” he told her.

“Oh, I see,” she said as her teeth clenched and she drew her arms inward. He’d just said something wrong. He could tell. “A girl like me, huh? What, because I’m not wearing a pair of tiny shorts or baring my midriff I don’t belong in a bar? Or is it because I’m not throwing myself at you? You think just because you’re cute I’m going to throw my integrity out the window? Newsflash, Cowboy, you are not _that_ cute and I am not _that_ desperate!”

Jake stared at her with raised eyebrows and a dropped jaw. He couldn’t fathom a response. He’d never been chastised by a cute girl before. He’d also never been accused of being a sexist pig before which, if he understood girl-speak, he was fairly certain is what he was being accused of now.

Ashby waited till she was finished before he let out a load deep laugh and nearly double over behind the bar.

“Oh, sweet molasses, I love this girl,” Ashby said as he tried to reign in his laughter. “You get a free pass on breaking that mug and your next drink is on the house. Damn, I shoulda got a picture of his face.”

Ashby left a beer in front of the girl before he walked away with a smirk. “Good luck, bro,” he mumbled to Jake as he left. “She’s a handful.”

He glared at Ashby as he left and then turned back to the girl after a moment.

“Look, kid, I wasn’t trying to insinuate anything or insult you.”

She scoffed and glared into her beer.

“You got me all wrong, alright? I didn’t mean you weren’t good enough or you shouldn’t be here. I just meant, I don’t know, you’re better. You should be somewhere better than here. That’s all I meant to say,” he explained.

She slowly looked up at him and stared at him with a critical gaze. Her glare faded into something sad for a moment before she looked down at her beer again and spoke softly. “You think that _now_. But, trust me, you wouldn’t if you knew me. Most people don’t.”

“You just passin’ through?” he asked. He didn’t know if he should ask her to explain. In the end he decided that possibly upsetting her again was not worth the risk.

She shook her head. “No, I, um, transferred to the University. Just started classes this week.”

“What?” He asked in shock. “No one from out of town ever goes to that school. Girl like you had to have other options.”

“If you say ‘girl like you’ one more time I swear I will dump my beer on you,” she muttered in a flat tone. “You don’t know me. Don’t pretend you do.”

“Okay, at some point this took a bad turn,” he said with a sigh. “I don’t mean any offense.”

“I’m not whatever it is you think I am. Whether that’s prim or naïve or perfect little princess I’m not really sure, but I just…I just want to be me, okay?” She told him. “So, don’t treat me like I’m better than you or anyone else. I’ve got baggage too.”

This time it was his turn to be a bit offended. “Who says I got baggage?”

“It’s written all over your face,” she said as she bit her bottom lip nervously. “Plus, the way you talk about this town is pretty telling too. You’re clearly a local, but you seem to think of this place as the furthest place a person can fall. Forgive me if I’m over stepping, but that doesn’t sound like something someone who’s happy as a ‘simple man’ would say. Does it?”

He stared at her in stunned silence for a long moment and when that moment ended he said, “who the _hell_ are you?” He was certain his face looked as bewildered as he sounded. Seriously, this girl just swept in from out of nowhere and saw right through him. He’d been playing this role his whole life and not even his family suspected he was anything less than genuine. So, how the hell did she know?

“Sorry, I wasn’t trying to—“

“No, no I’m not offended.”

“You’re not?”

“No, I’m…I’m impressed,” he said thoughtfully before he offered his hand to her for a shake. “Jake Stone.”

She accepted his hand with a bright smile. “Cassandra Cillian.”

“Well, nice to meet ya, Cassie,” he said as he tipped his cowboy hat at her.

She giggled at him and then ducked her head shyly. “I thought only cowboys in movies did that. The whole tipping of the hat and the ‘howdy ma’am’ thing.” She deepened her voice during the words ‘howdy ma’am’ in what he assumed was her best John Wayne impression, though it was completely terrible, and narrowed her eyes in a way that vaguely reminded him of an old Spaghetti Western. 

He laughed loudly and was afraid she might take offense, but this time she laughed with him. He found himself wanting to hear her laugh again. It was the best sound he’d heard in a very long time.

They exchanged shy smiles before she spoke again.

“So, Jake, what do you do?”

“I work out on an oil rig about five miles from here,” he told her as his good mood dimmed considerably.

“Really?” she asked with wide eyes and genuine interest.

Something inside of him clenched. She actually thought what he did was interesting? Not even he thought what he did was interesting. “Yeah,” he said as he rubbed the back of his neck and looked away from her. “It’s not much, but it’s a livin’.”

“I don’t know. I think it sounds kind of cool,” she said with a soft smile before she slammed a hand down on the bar and then turned an excited grin on him. “Do you get to use a welding torch? People on oilrigs use welding torches right? Please tell me you get to use a welding torch.”

He smiled brightly at her and laughed as he nodded. “Yeah, I get to use a welding torch. Nearly every day.”

“Nice,” she said with a grin. “Then it can’t be as bad as you make it sound.”

“I haven’t said it was bad,” he said in confusion.

“Not in so many words. But you wouldn’t look me in the eye when you told me about it. That says enough,” she said with an encouraging smile. “If you really aren’t happy, why do you stay?”

“Darlin’, I ask myself that same question every day,” he said with a sigh.

He wasn’t going to tell her any more than that. He’d already told her too much. Not that she probably knew any of the same people he did. Really, who would she tell?

She giggled again and he gave her a curious glance. “People around here don’t use names much, do they? I’ve been called ‘darlin’, ‘sweetheart’, ‘little lady’, and ‘kid.’ All within the last half hour. That’s impressive. In fact, you didn’t even call me Cassandra. You called me Cassie. No one’s ever called me Cassie.”

“Should I not do that anymore or—“

“No, it’s fine. I just…it’s different. No one’s ever shortened my name like that before.”

“No one? Not even when you were little?” He asked with a furrowed brow.

“Nope,” she said, as she made sure to pop the ‘p’ at the end of the word for emphasis. “Nicknames were inappropriate and distracting. My mother summed it up like this: ‘Cassie is a waitress, _Cassandra_ is a world class engineer.’ No pressure, huh?”

“Parents ain’t ever easy, Cassie,” he said sympathetically. “So, is that what you’re studying? Engineering?”

“Um, I guess, I don’t really know what I’m studying now. At my old school I was studying aeronautical and astronautical engineering and computer science, but I don’t think they have that here.”

His eyes widened and he gave her an impressed grin. “Uh, no, no I don’t think they do. If you were studying that why in the world would you come here?”

“Well, I guess you could say I’m taking part in an independent study,” she said hesitantly. “And there’s an expert here that can help me with it. And he’s one of the very few who can. So, here I am, in a new place, where I know absolutely no one.”

“Not true,” he said with a smirk as he tipped his beer bottle in her direction. “You know me.” At this point she knew more about him then most of the people he’d grown up with.

“Well, I guess that’s something,” she said with a playful smile.

He nodded and winked at her. “It certainly is.”

Earlier, he’d wished for something interesting, and for once in his life, one of his wishes actually came true.


End file.
